Calls For Homeless Boss To Step Down Over Controversial Comment

Calls For Homeless Boss To Step Down Over Controversial Comment

There are calls for the Director of the Dublin Region Homeless Executive to resign. It’s after Eileen Gleeson claimed that it takes "years of bad behaviour" for someone to end up on the streets.

Eileen Gleeson says those sleeping in doorways or in tents on the Royal Canal need to be linked up to services, and if they're accepting food from unauthorised volunteers they may not get the help they need.

Director of Focus Ireland Mike Allen says he share's some of Ms Gleeson's concerns but says her comments were made very clumsily. He says some of the groups "rival" official volunteers.

Today, Ms Gleeson admitted that she "regret it in the context of the way I used it", adding that she was "trying to explain that people who are homeless don't just pop up overnight - there is a reason why they come into homelessness and they are complex".